A few years ago I answered the door to a man who was trying to sell ironing board covers for an extremely high price. I didn’t want to turn him away, so I called my dad to the door. My dad bought one for £20, said thank you to the man, and shut the door. I was very confused why he bought the cover, and he told me that he was worried that the man was going to key his car — a sports car that my dad loved a lot — because it was not in the garage. I thought that that was pretty reasonable, and took the cover and put it on the counter.

A couple minutes later I was curious to see if the man did key the car, so I went out and checked. My dad’s car was in the garage the whole time.

We still mock him about the time he brought a £20 cover to save his protected car.